


Family holiday

by imsfire



Series: Family Holiday [1]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, Fix-It, Gen, I just want them to be ok, Post Battle of Endor, Post RotJ, Post-Scarif, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, and have a chance to discover what they could be after the war ends, my headcanon that Naboo has cherry blossom, no mention of K2 because I haven't yet decided sorry!, rebelcaptain fan week, sakura-viewing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-17 07:37:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10589421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imsfire/pseuds/imsfire
Summary: The Battle of Endor was several months ago.  As the remainder of the Empire is driven back and mopped up, the future is beginning to look really hopeful; and long-serving troops are finally being allowed to take shore leave.  Including our favourite team of Rogues...





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the rebelcaptain fan week: Prompt 1, Family.  
> I may be telescoping time slightly for events post-Endor.

The mild spring air smells sweet.  There are birds singing in the trees and insects humming in the branches of snowy blossom.  It’s spring on Naboo’s northern continent, and their two weeks’ shore leave has just begun.

Cassian sits back against the trunk of the nearest tree and contemplates the scene around him, and the people.  The picnic blanket spread out between them is littered with the remains of their meal, and on its far side Bodhi is asleep in the grass, flat on his back with the sun on his scarred face.  Behind him Chirrut sits calmly sipping another measure of rice wine while his husband holds a parasol over him; they talk in lowered voices, concerned not to disturb the sleeping pilot.

Jyn is at Cassian’s side, also asleep.  She always tries to stay close, and now she’s right up under the tree with him.  A scatter of fallen blossom decorates her new shirt.  Like Bodhi, she’s eaten a huge meal, though unlike him she kept off the wine.  Her face is exhausted and pale.  He watches her tenderly, remembering how long it took to convince her to accept the offered leave. 

He could just sit here and look at Jyn’s face, and every minute, every hour, spent doing that would be time well spent. 

A fortnight of clean air and plentiful real food, of sunlight and complete rest, might put some colour back in her cheeks.  Might begin to soften those shadows that mark her even in sleep.  A holiday can’t undo a lifetime of fear and anger; he knows, rationally, that nothing can.  But it might help, a little; might make her smile, bring out that rare, rusty chuckle of hers.  He’d like to see Jyn smile more, hear her laugh every day.  He’d like to see her healed, and of more than the burns and fractures and bruises and blaster wounds of the last four years.  If she can heal, then so can he.  And he wants to heal, now there is hope in the galaxy again, and victory is within reach, instead of being a fantasy.  The war may yet drag on; but unless Palpatine turns out to have a son and heir hidden away somewhere, the Empire is now a headless thing.  It surely cannot last much longer.

And that is why this small, desperate, battered team have been permitted to take a period of leave.  For the first time since they all met, they can be spared.  Maybe now he can even hope they will indeed be spared, and that this long run of luck that has kept them all alive will not, in fact, run out one day.

Cassian picks up a fallen blossom from the grass.  It’s soft, a circlet of silky petals, white blushed with faintest pink.  Delicately scented, almost weightless.  He places it in Jyn’s open palm; adds another and then a third.  She’ll wake to a handful of blossom, and maybe she’ll smile at that.

The warmth and the fresh air are heady.  The peace all around him is almost tangible.  He breathes deep and feels something is lifting itself out of his body; all the weight of tension rising from his shoulders and neck, his unbending back, unbreaking arms.  All his limbs are emptying out, and there’s nothing left in him but a weary gratitude.  He’s alive, they’re all alive, his people.

He had a family once; he can still remember their faces, just.   It’s always hurt to look back, so that he’s shied away from it; Mamí and Papí and his sisters, taken away and snuffed out, so young, so cruelly young.  In another year he’ll be older than his father ever lived to be.  He knows they look alike; it’s his father’s face that stares back at him every morning, anywhere there’s a mirror to look at.  He’s always wanted to be a man his family would have been proud of, and maybe now he can.   

A blossom falls and lands on his boot, and he picks it up and puts it in Jyn’s hand with the others.  Watches her calm face.  Her eyelids flutter, but they stay closed, and he hopes her dreams are restful, devoid of blood and fear and fire.  It’s been a long time since she woke him, screaming, or he her.  The peaceful dreams are beginning to be normal, and the nightmares get more rare every month.  Even Bodhi mentioned recently that his sleep-horrors are fewer these days.

“Captain.” Chirrut’s smiling voice, soft as the air.  “Take a nap.  You are on holiday.”

Cassian looks up at him, and the blind man lifts his porcelain wine-cup as if to acknowledge the glance of greeting.  Beside him, Baze grins.  “He’s right.  You could do with the rest, little brother.”

A sense of happiness creeps over Cassian at the familiar endearment; and “Of course I’m right,” says Chirrut.  Baze pats his husband’s leg with one scarred hand. 

Like a cat, Chirrut accepts being petted as though it were a homage. “You don’t need to keep watch all day, you know.  We’ll look after the family.”

The family.  His new family.

“Thank you,” Cassian whispers; and is unsure whether it’s an answer or a prayer he’s saying.  He lies down in the grass and cherry petals, beside Jyn.  Breathing her breath and the fresh air of life, he closes his eyes. 


End file.
